@article{8f891c909eaf44f99de054127ae31020,
title = "GABA signalling modulates plant growth by directly regulating the activity of plant-specific anion transporters",
abstract = "The non-protein amino acid, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) rapidly accumulates in plant tissues in response to biotic and abiotic stress, and regulates plant growth. Until now it was not known whether GABA exerts its effects in plants through the regulation of carbon metabolism or via an unidentified signalling pathway. Here, we demonstrate that anion flux through plant aluminium-activated malate transporter (ALMT) proteins is activated by anions and negatively regulated by GABA. Site-directed mutagenesis of selected amino acids within ALMT proteins abolishes GABA efficacy but does not alter other transport properties. GABA modulation of ALMT activity results in altered root growth and altered root tolerance to alkaline pH, acid pH and aluminium ions. We propose that GABA exerts its multiple physiological effects in plants via ALMT, including the regulation of pollen tube and root growth, and that GABA can finally be considered a legitimate signalling molecule in both the plant and animal kingdoms.",
author = "Ramesh, {Sunita A.} and Tyerman, {Stephen D.} and Bo Xu and Jayakumar Bose and Satwinder Kaur and Vanessa Conn and Patricia Domingos and Sana Ullah and Stefanie Wege and Sergey Shabala and Feij{\'o}, {Jos{\'e} A.} and Ryan, {Peter R.} and Matthew Gillham",
note = "Funding Information: We thank Wendy Sullivan for harvesting oocytes, tobacco cell preparation and technical assistance, and Asmini Athman and Muhammad Kamran for help with plant experiments. We thank Muyun Xu for cloning the cDNAs of OsALMT5 and OsALMT9. We thank Roger Leigh, Barry Shelp, Tony Ashton, Geoff Fincher and Manny Delhaize for critical reading of the manuscript. The Australian Research Council and Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide have supported this research by funding M.G. (FT130100709), M.G. S.D.T and P.R.R. through DP130104205, and M.G. and S.D.T through CE140100008. J.A.F. acknowledges Fundac¸{\~a}o para a Ci{\^e}ncia e Tecnologia (PTDC/BEX-BCM/0376/2012 and PTDC/BIA-PLA/4018/ 2012) and the University of Maryland. P.D. acknowledges an FCT Fellowship (SFRH/BD/69168/2010). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.",
year = "2015",
month = jul,
day = "29",
doi = "10.1038/ncomms8879",
language = "English",
volume = "6",
journal = "Nature Communications",
issn = "2041-1723",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group - Macmillan Publishers",
}